NEW YORK – As if a meeting between Serena and Venus Williams with a Grand Slam at stake wasn’t a stagy enough drama, there was Oprah’s entrance for added emphasis. The TV cameras treated her arrival at the U.S. Open like an awards show red carpet. Then there was Dr. Oz, and Nas, and Donald Trump’s hair, all of them upstaged by Serena Williams’s performance under the high pressure and brilliant tungsten lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The U.S. Open can sometimes try too hard to be a Broadway-style “event,” and between the tense moments there was a certain distracting sideshow silliness to their quarterfinal match Tuesday evening, what with John McEnroe swapping bro handshakes with Trump in his luxury box to boos, and beauty shots of Candice Bergen and Alan Cumming on the big screens.

The combination of buzz and stress might have undone Serena in her quest to become the first woman in 27 years to complete a calendar Grand Slam sweep, and that was to say nothing of the coercive pressure her older sister put on her, with her javelin-like strokes. It was fair to say there was no such thing as an unforced error in this peculiar match, won by Serena in three sets of wildly diverging quality, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

But fittingly, it ended with a purely sincere and unforced gesture, when the two siblings met at the net. As Serena met her with a grimace, Venus Williams put one arm around her younger and better sister, and then she put another arm around her, for a full familial embrace. It brought the largest applause of the night from the sellout crowd of 23,771.

“It’s a really great moment,” Serena said. “She’s the toughest player I ever played in my life, and the best person I know.”

How to find the right emotional stance from which to play a sister, doubles partner and lifelong roommate? Serena said frankly after advancing to the quarters that Venus was “The only player in the draw I don’t want to play. And not only because she’s my sister.” It was because Venus was a seven-time winner of Grand Slam titles who knew her every mental and physical habit. They had trained together daily since they were small children, and share a home together.

“I’m playing, for me, the best player in the tournament, and that’s never easy,” Serena said. “She’s beaten me so many times. I’ve taken a lot of losses off her – more than anybody. She’s a player that knows how to win, knows how to beat me and knows my weaknesses better than anyone. So it’s not an easy match at all.”

But this was why they had surrendered their childhoods – a match like this was the end game, the final prize. “We trained all out lives to be on this court,” Serena said afterward. They began playing tennis in public at the ages of eight and 10, respectively, trumpeted by their father Richard as “Cinderellas of the ghetto,” prodigies from a public park in Compton, hitting with dead balls on a cracked court. Shortly after Venus won the Southern California girls’ 12-and-under title at age 10, Richard used her promise to move the family to Florida so Venus and Serena could train on scholarship with Rick Macci, who had tutored Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce.

Now they are 33 and 35 years old, bold and mature versions of the leggy, spring-loaded kids who hit out on every shot, unafraid to spray errors into the backstop in their efforts to beat the ball deep. Venus was the more willowy and mature player initially at 6 feet 1, but with the milder voice and temperament. Serena glowered at being smaller, and overlooked, which may explain the furious thrust of her game. Both have grown from pure power players into craftier all-courters, but the main component of both their games remains pure force and competitive will.

Their sister act has captivated the public ever since Venus formally turned pro in 1994 at the age of 14. They first met in a Grand Slam tournament match in 1998, when Serena was still just 17. From that point on they see-sawed for dominance of the women’s game, until Venus was stricken with Sjogren’s disease, an auto-immune ailment, in 2011. This was just the second time in six years they had met in a Grand Slam, and in the meantime Serena had surged ahead. This was their 27th meeting overall, with Serena holding a 15-11 edge.

If there was an emotional toll to the rivalry, any buried resentments or family psychodramas, they were not inclined to admit it publicly. “I feel like that’s what we always wanted growing up, just to be out there on the big stage duking it out when someone named Williams will win,” Venus said. But their parents, Richard and Oracene, long ago announced that they couldn’t bear to watch when the sisters had to play each other.

Earlier in the week, Serena said frankly that she deals with any psychological vulnerability on the court by treating her sister as an “enemy,” just another faceless opponent. That attitude was in evidence when she won the first set, the most taut of the three, by breaking her sister’s serve in the final game. They traded massive slugging strokes, forcing each other off balance for much of it. “She came out hitting so hard,” Serena said. But the auto-immune disease means that Venus suffers from fatigue and joint pain, and has lost of her speed and agility through lack of training. Serena exploited that lack of mobility to create the definitive service break of the set, with a ruthless drop shot followed by a lob.

“She’s able to come up with greats shots when she needs it, that’s just a hallmark of her game,” Venus said.

She added, “Losing isn’t fun. But I’m still excited to see Serena have a chance at the Grand Slam.”

OTHER RESULTS

On Thursday, Serena faces unseeded Robert Vinci of Italy, who reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at age 32 by outlasting Kristina Mladenovic, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

The 43rd-ranked Vinci is playing in the 44th major tournament of her singles career, the second-most appearances by a woman before reaching her initial semifinal. Vinci is 0-4 against Serena and joked about wearing a helmet for protection from some of the 33-year-old American’s booming shots.

“She’s the favorite. Maybe she’ll feel the pressure. Who knows? It all depends on her. If she serves well, it’s tough to return,” Vinci said. “But I have nothing to lose.”

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.